Diabolus
by Anarchy's Ashes
Summary: The sequal to Cleanse and Purify. WARNING: Gory, very gory


Diabolus 

Diaz's eyes flickered around the cramped interior of the Valkyrie gunship as they neared the drop-zone. He watched the eleven men under his command check their weapons one last time, making sure the power connectors were in no danger of coming loose, that the scopes were clean and the triggers were loose and would need only a little pressure to fire. He watched them refasten their armour, check their visors for any faults and make sure that their respirators were fastened and supplying clean oxygen.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Ramirez, the tech, fiddling with something or other on his bionic left arm. He was the smallest man in the unit, merely 5' 7" tall. Next to Ramirez was Hofer, the demolitions man, a colossal giant with biceps larger than most men's thighs, and fists capable of breaking a neck with a single punch. On Diaz's other side were Serov and Konstantin, the two best marksmen in his squad. On the end was Tavener, the plasma gunner, and the quiet man of the team.

The rest of the squad were Baker, Simms, Lafarge, Dornier, Holdt and Kopinski. They sat opposite to Diaz, each absorbed by whatever little ritual would help to relieve the tension they all felt before a drop. Diaz knew that he could rely on them all, no matter the situation, for they had all been through the same rigorous training and purification tests as he had, tests designed to let only the most loyal through. But, more than that, they were his comrades, his friends, and he was damned if any of them would betray that.

They were loyal to the Emperor, to each other and to Inquisitor Pernon of the Ordo Malleus. They were the very best, Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, yet to fail in a mission against the chaotic forces that assailed the Imperium.

Diaz now ran through his own checks, the power couplings on his lightning claws, his visor targeting and diagnosis systems, his armour, and his newest piece of equipment; a bolt pistol given to him by Pernon. He made sure he had enough ammunition for it, three clips of normal ammunition and two of anti-daemon would be enough.

A shout came from the cockpit, signalling them that they were almost there. The red light next to each of the three doors came on, itching to turn green and allow the stormtroopers to leave. The men stood, splitting into teams of four for the drop. Crewmembers slid the two side doors open, while Diaz himself hit the ramp release for the rear door. After what seemed like a miniature eternity of waiting, the light turned green, and Diaz and his men fell from the Valkyrie and began their drop.

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Falling was always an exhilarating feeling for Diaz. The momentary freedom of unimpeded decent sent adrenaline rushing through his system. Within seconds though, the feeling was over and the grav-chute on his back activated, stopping him mere metres off the ground on a cushion of air. He hit the release on his 'chute and dropped the remaining distance, rolling when he hit the floor and coming up holding his bolt pistol in both hands, scanning for any potential hostiles. Seeing none, he lowered his pistol and activated his squad beacon, a small device on his wrist that allowed him to know the location of his men, and to allow them to rendezvous on his position by projecting a marker onto the inside of their visors.

The first to arrive were Ramirez, Lafarge and Tavener, those who he had dropped with. Konstantin, Hofer, Baker and Simms were next, followed closely by Serov, Dornier, Kopinski and Holdt. They stood in a group, gazing up in awe at the sight that greeted them.

The front of the Great Palace on Farris Ulatra was a truly impressive sight; it was like a massive gothic cathedral, great spires rising from the corners, each one plated with gold, stretching many hundred feet into the sky. The front wall itself was about a hundred feet tall, carved with a great frieze, depicting the salvation of the world by the Emperor and the Adeptus Astartes. The full face of the wall was used, not a single inch of the face was left untouched. Set into the wall were an impressive pair of seemingly wooden doors. In truth, it was foot thick armaplas. They were about twenty feet wide, stretching upwards for maybe fifty feet. When they went it would be quite a bang.

Diaz turned to Hofer and gestured for him to blow the doors. Hofer moved forwards, setting a demolition charge to the base of each door. Running det-cord back to where the squad was standing, he linked the cord to a small black box and, after a nod from Diaz, twisted the knob on it causing the two charges to detonate, sending assorted pieces of armaplas, shrapnel and rock flying everywhere. When the dust cleared, the bottom twenty feet of the doors were missing, utterly eradicated. With a small smile behind his visor, Diaz started forwards into the hole, clapping Hofer on the shoulder as he passed.

Lafarge and Kopinski led the way as the stormtroopers made their way into the depths of the palace. Occasionally, the palace guards would appear in front of the advancing men, only to be cut down almost immediately. The same happened at the rear where Serov and Konstantin were stationed, the superior marksmanship of the two men stopping any threats from getting too close. At length, after much time, and even more dead bodies, the unit reached their objective; the chambers of the governor of Farris Ulatra, Lucien DiMaggio. Diaz once again gestured to Hofer, directing him to blow the doors.

"Make it a big one," he added.

The demolitions man gave him a mock salute before fixing a melta bomb and a pair of krak grenades to the door, setting the timers, and sprinting into cover. The explosives detonated, causing the doors to fly straight off their hinges into the guards behind. The stormtroopers moved swiftly out of cover, guns up, into the room, gunning down the governor's bodyguards before they could even raise a weapon in their defence. With the guards out of the way, the squad turned their weapons on the governor himself – las-bolts, plasma shots, bolt rounds and grenades from Hofer's grenade launcher all flew towards the man, slamming into him and toppling the fat figure from the podium upon which he sat. The men turned to leave, when suddenly, the sound of harsh laughter filled the air. The 'troopers span around again, none of them showing shock at the sight that greeted them.

The supposedly dead man stood facing them, chunks blown out of his frame, the entire left side of his face and body melted away from a plasma gun shot. As they watched, unfazed, the lines of the governor's body began to shimmer, the small rotund man doubling in height to over ten feet tall. Without warning, the man's body exploded outwards, splattering the room with blood and torn flesh.

The figure that replaced him was a sight that would drive most mortals insane. It was a mockery of the human form, black skin glistening with human blood, horns protruding from its forehead – twisted and sharp. In place of a nose, it had a pair of slits, its mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth. It clenched its taloned hands, clawed feet scratching at the podium as a barbed tail flickered behind it. Carved into its muscular chest was an eight pointed star; the symbol of Chaos Undivided.

As Diaz looked at the creature, he tilted his head forwards towards the com-link within his helmet, until his lips were almost touching the microphone,

"Diabolus," he muttered.

"Correct, Mortal," growled the Greater Daemon, as it stepped down from the podium and faced the stormtroopers. "I am a Daemon. Allow me to show you what it is that I can do." It gestured towards the 'troopers, a psychic blast emitting from the creature's hand, causing Simms' head to explode within his helmet. The daemon somehow looked surprised, the blast was supposed to have killed all of them, not just the one. The answer was blatantly obvious on the armour of the men, glowing brightly were small six-sided shapes, hexagrammic wards designed to protect against psychic attack. The daemon smiled, then spoke again:

"You know what you face, Mortal. But you are truly foolish. Such trinkets will not save you, not from a creature older than time itself."

In response, Diaz calmly raised his bolt pistol and fired twice into the chest of the warp fiend. The Greater Daemon howled, staggering backwards as the blessed bolt rounds struck it. The shots left two craters in the chest of the creature, ones that began to leek an ichor that ate into the marble floor like an acid. In response, the daemon lashed out with another psychic blast, causing Holdt and Dornier to fly off their feet into the wall, and the others stumbled backwards from the power of the blast.

Regaining their footing, the squad all opened fire on the Daemon, forcing it backwards with the sheer volume of their fire. The daemon shrugged most of it off, however, regenerating its warp-spawned body as soon as damage was done, only the blessed bolts of Diaz's pistol doing any lasting damage. In a matter of seconds, the creature was amongst them, scattering them like leaves to the four winds. Baker fell first, his gut sliced open, blood and stomach fluids seeping out of his body, slowly killing him. Konstantin went next, slammed against the wall by the daemons bulk, before having his chest crushed by the clawed foot of the beast. The daemon had begun to bear down on Hofer, fully intending to rip him to shreds, when a barrage of bolter shells suddenly hit it, forcing it away from the stormtrooper, who scrambled to safety.

Five figures stood in the broken doorway, archaic blue-silver tactical dreadnaught armour gleaming in the destruction. All five had storm bolters incorporated onto the back of his left forearm armour. Four of them carried massive force halberds, each inlaid with the catechisms of banishment. The fifth terminator, one with additional decorations on his armour that spoke of countless battles, carried a huge broadsword engraved in the same manner as the halberds.

The Greater Daemon roared in agony as the bolter wounds also closed, flesh and leathery skin re-knitting, save for a cluster in its gut that continued to leak ichor. Relatively healed, the daemon began a low chant, a portal appearing next to it. From the portal leapt eight Daemons, smaller versions of the original beast, perhaps two thirds of the size.

Gesturing briefly at the stormtroopers, the Greater Daemon directed the new arrivals to finish the work he had already begun. The lesser Daemons bounded towards the 'troopers, one creature getting eradicated by a blast of plasma before it could reach the survivors. This bought no time, as one of the Daemons leapt forwards, tearing into Dornier, clamping a claw around his throat and shoving the other talon directly through his chest. Lafarge and Tavener stood back to back, swords taken from the dead guards in hand, fighting a pair of creatures that had tried to surround them. Hofer had one of the creatures on the defensive, repeatedly slamming the stock of his grenade launcher into it.

Diaz was having a harder time of it, the largest of the Daemons having attacked him. They both spun and whirled, slashing at each other with blades and claws respectively. Suddenly, the Daemon lunged, trying to push a claw into Diaz's throat. With reflexes that spoke of years of combat, Diaz darted to one side avoiding the lethal appendage. He sliced backhanded at the arm as it went past him, severing the claw and causing the fiend to recoil. Following up on his advantage, Diaz slashed at the creature's eyes, blinding it momentarily. Finally, he shoved one three- bladed lightning claw into the creature's neck, whipping it sideways and decapitating the Daemon.

Diaz span around, eyes scanning for any of his comrades in danger. Lafarge and Tavener had disposed of one of their opponents, and were both launching their own pincer move on the remaining one. A Daemon was slicing into Serov, slowly shredding the marksman, not seeing the grenade gripped in the dieing man's hand. It detonated, ending Serov's suffering as well as destroying the Daemon. He saw Ramirez slip on Baker's guts, falling to the ground with a Daemon towering over him. Diaz started towards Ramirez, knowing that he would be too late to save the unarmed man. As the creature drew back a talon, ready to plunge it into Ramirez's head, Ramirez raised his left arm, pointing it towards the Daemon. The hand of the bionic appendage dropped away revealing a small pilot flame. Before the Daemon could respond to this, a massive gout of flame shot into its face, setting it alight and making it easy prey for Kopinski and his long bladed combat knife.

Hofer had finished off his opponent, but was powerless to stop the final Daemon from slicing Holdt's head from his shoulders. Angered by the death of his comrade, Hofer switched his grenade launcher to fully automatic and emptied the remainder of the magazine at the creature, eradicating it.

Gathering the remainder of his squad, Diaz was forced to watch the epic conflict between the Greater Daemon and the Grey Knights. One of the great warriors had fallen to the fiend, but the resolve of those remaining had not faltered. Diaz watched in admiration as the sword wielding terminator severed one of the creature's arms, causing it to stumble backwards, onto the blades of the three halberds behind it. With a final shout of hatred, the Grey Knight drove his sword deep into the chest of the Greater Daemon, putting all of his anger and abhorrence at the Daemon into his blow. As the sword entered the creature's chest, the Daemon began to unravel. With a great explosion of light, the creature disappeared, banished back into the warp for a thousand years and a day.

The blessed sword dropped onto the floor, breaking the stillness of the room. The Grey Knight bent to retrieve his blade, wiping it free of daemonic blood before sheathing it again. The other three surviving terminators moved to remove the body of their fallen battle-brother, two lifting his body, the third retrieving his halberd. As the solemn precession left the hall, the Captain turned to Diaz and his men, striding in their direction. Diaz moved forwards as well, meeting the terminator halfway across the room. The Grey Knight stared into Diaz's eyes, gauging the stormtroopers purity. Diaz stared back, meeting the space marine's eyes unflinchingly. At length, the terminator spoke:

"I must commend you and your men on their bravery, Sergeant."

"Thank you Captain." Diaz bowed his head briefly, "I would say the same for you and your brethren, but bravery hardly seems an adequate description."

"I merely do His work Sergeant."

"As do I, Captain."

The terminator inclined his head to Diaz and his men, then turned and crossed the hall to the destroyed doorway.

"We should leave this cursed place," he called over his shoulder, "It must be destroyed soon."

Diaz and the remains of the squad followed, picking their way once again through the corridors of the palace. Waiting outside was a Valkyrie, rear ramp down, waiting for them. They boarded, exhausted, strapping themselves in, and waiting for take-off. Only Diaz remained standing, leaning out of a side door and looking back at the palace. Smiling grimly, he watched as a pair of melta torpedoes slammed into the building, demolishing the building and creating a great conflagration of the remains. Now they were to return to the Inquisitor and continue their fight against Chaos.

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_DISCLAIMER: I do not own Warhammer 40 000, although I do own the third and fourth editions. The characters are my own._

_Note from the Author: The Diaz fight is for _ze-poodle _who wanted more than one line of lightning claws. The whole thing is for your viewing pleasure._


End file.
